Next Saturday (3/23/13) at 12:15 and approx. 2:35pm, the ladies rugby takes the field in their first home appearance ever. They’ll be playing UT San Antonio in two 7’s matches, similar to what they did in San Antonio, 2 weeks ago. We’re excited about this, because while we may have started out later than most other clubs, we have been fortunate to get matches like we have and this upcoming matches were made possible, not only by the two coaches of the teams involved but the President of the National Small College Rugby Organization (NSCRO) Stephen Cohen. He has graciously agreed to allow the ladies to play their games before both NSCRO men’s events.
If you remember, 2 weeks ago, we split wins with UTSA. Each winning one match each, while this is very important for both clubs, the great part of this is that both clubs are getting games in front of people who will ultimately make the decision to admit these 2 clubs into the Texas Rugby Union Women’s Collegiate Conference, which is still in the works of being tweaked and restructured. But it will happen and we’ll know more about that in time.
A brief description of how the “Cowboy Cup” came into place. Last year the Stephen Cohen came up with an idea, with 210 small college and universities competing for a national championship. There would be a qualifying match between the top 2 college rugby clubs from Texas and Colorado with the winner of this competition to advance to the
final piece of the elite 8 to determine the final spot for the final 4 for the national championship. After many emails and discussions, the name of the event was determined, “Cowboy Cup Qualifier”. The next step was to determine who would host this inaugural event and after discussions with our Rec Sports Director Chris McAlpine, and club officers; we decided that we would place a bid to host. I found out that not only had UT Dallas placed a bid but 2 other schools had placed bids as well, but that didn’t matter, UT Dallas was awarded the bid to host the “Cowboy Cup” in March of 2013.
A lot of work had been put forth by not only the coaches, Rec Sports Director, parents and club officers. The first was securing hotels for the teams coming to Richardson for this, the next was to create and debut our brand new scoreboard (which was created by David Shaffer). Most of the other things that needed to be taken care of, are items no one sees, but are required and that thanks to Chris McAlpine who has been instrumental in every step of the way in helping this club put things together for the Cowboy Cup. Next weekend will be the players turn to take care of all the work for the Cowboy Cup. Manning the scoreboard, selling t-shirts, setting up and tearing down the field before and after all the matches have been played.
After the ladies play the first of their 2 matches, the men will take the field in the first of 2 men’s semi final matches to determine the winner of this inaugural “Cowboy Cup”. With UT Dallas having the #1 seed from Texas we’ll play the #2 seed from the Eastern Rockies Rugby Football Union, against the University of Denver. In the second men’s match on the day, #2 Texas - Angelo St. University will play #1 Colorado School of Mines.
The times for all Saturday matches:
12:15 – UT Dallas Women vs UTSA Women
1:00 – UT Dallas vs University of Denver
2:35 – UT Dallas Women vs UTSA Women
3:00 – Colorado School of Mines vs Angelo St. University
Times for Sunday matches:
12noon – 3rd place match
2:00 – Championship Match
2:50 – NSCRO Trophy presentation by Stephen Cohen
In the first match, the Univ. of Denver will be a worthy opponent. They earned this spot in the competition but not much is known of these guys, but that won’t matter to our UT Dallas Rugby Club players. It’s just another hurdle and like a good hurdler, we have to clear each piece on the way to the finish line. Sometimes you hit the hurdle, but you don’t dwell on that, you look at the next one. We have a solid club and are playing really good ball right now, but we can’t sit back and think we’ll win just because we’re at home and wear Green & Orange jerseys. We will have to go out and execute and play as good a game as we know we can play. This should be a cracker of a match. The second match will be Colorado School of Mines vs Angelo St. The winners of both matches will play for the championship at 2:00pm on Sunday. The 2 teams that lose on Saturday will play for 3rd place at Noon, Sunday.
All the players and coaches at UT Dallas are really excited for this upcoming event and look forward to playing our best in front of their parents, friends, classmates and visitors to this great university. Thanks in advance for your support and hopefully, after the weekend is said and done with, we’ll be making plans for
Denver.